Asparagine plays an important role as a transport form of nitrogen and in many plants--including nitrogen fixers--it is the principle compound involved in the transfer of nitrogen from the roots into the transpiration stream. In plants asparagine is formed from glutamine, aspartate and ATP catalyzed by the asparagine synthetase ASN (E.C. 6.3.5.4 ) whereby glutamate, AMP and pyrophosphate are formed as by-products.